The Best Mistake of Her Life Read Free

none of them obvious. But when he spoke, his voice was resigned.
    “Sorry. You’ll have to find another guy to parade around town,” he said, and then he turnedand headed for the crew gathered around a monitor, watching a replay of his spectacular fall.
    Kate followed him. “There isn’t anyone else.”
    He kept his eyes forward. “Where are all your groupies from that expensive private high school you attended?”
    “I didn’t have groupies.”
    “Okay, I stand corrected,” he said, and then he glanced down at Kate. Unfortunately those long legs of his kept right on going, forcing her high-heeled sandals to double as track shoes. “Perhaps
flock of admirers
is a better phrase?” he went on.
    “I didn’t have those, either.”
    He let out an amused laugh. “That’s not how I remember it. What I remember is a straitlaced, popular princess who attended the high school with the highest per-capita-income area code in the state, Biscayne Bay Preparatory Academy.” He stopped and stepped close, and Kate’s discomfort stepped up a notch, too. “A girl who was too good to give the time of day to a kid from lowly County High on the seedier side of town.”
    Heat crept up Kate’s face. As a teen, there had been a whole host of reasons why Kate had treated her brother’s best friend with a nonchalant reserve. Money had never entered her extensive list. “Your memory is jaded, Memphis.”
    He cocked his head, staring down at her with the look of a man who wasn’t going to play along. “My memory is fine. It’s your perception that’s off.” His eyes lingered on her face, and a combination of desire and dread tap-danced across herchest. “Then again,” he went on softly, “burying your head in the sand was always your specialty.”
    By God, her marriage had proved that right.
    But if she stopped to list all her mistakes she’d never get anything done. “I didn’t come to discuss the past, Memphis.”
    He took a stray lock of her hair between his fingers, absently rubbing the strands, the back of his beautifully muscled forearm millimeters from her breast. “It doesn’t work that way, Angel Face,” he murmured. Her body throbbing, she blinked back the disturbing emotions, careful to keep her face blank. His all-seeing eyes held hers as he went on, his voice reflective. “Yesterday is inextricably linked to tomorrow via that inconvenient concept we call today.”
    He toyed with her hair a moment longer before dropping his hand.
    She hated sounding desperate, but her tone came close to crossing that line. “I need your help, Memphis.” She paused before going on. “Please.”
    For a fraction of a second he looked as if he cared that she was almost begging him. A muscle in his jaw ticked. “Why?”
    How to explain to a man who could never relate? “Today I was forced to listen to a divorceé give a detailed description of how her sex life improved after her lousy husband dumped her, and then she proceeded to inform me to get back on the horse before it was too late.”
    His eyes crinkled in humor. “Sound advice.”
    A skeptical scoff escaped her lips. “I’m growing weary of all the advice.”
    “She was just offering you her sympathy.”
    “I don’t need sympathy.”
    “Yeah. And I’m not sure you deserve it, either,” he said thoughtfully, and a surge of guilt threatened to swamp her. But she pretended not to know what he was talking about when he went on. “Don’t you have any friends you could ask?”
    “No one who is available.”
    “Everything is for sale in this day and age,” he said easily. “How about an escort service?”
    She forced a patient look on her face. “I’m not hiring an escort.”
    His eyes crinkled in amusement. “It would come with some pretty powerful perks.”
    Kate pressed her lips together and counted to five, reminding herself that Memphis did whatever Memphis wanted. And right now it was clear he was intent on making her pay for the past.
    Kate briefly